Daily prayers

Psalm 55:17

       This may seem the exact opposite about which I wrote yesterday. I am not talking today about keeping the Sabbath and trying to ( for at least one day ), remember God and be attentive to creation and yourself.

       In today's devotional for Lent, the tables have been turned on me. The thought presented is the admonition to pray unceasingly as I was taught in Seminary. It truly was a joyous time. We would gather several times a day in the chapel with the seminarians facing each other. We would responsively read or chant our prayers, the resulting aural bouquet rising to the heavens. It was glorious.  The "Liturgy of the Hours" became a great strength to me, the chapel a cozy place to sit and pray and simply 'be' with God.

         The idea of praying to God  multiple times a day is an ancient tradition that was likely a practice that even Jesus did as a devout Jew.

         I recall the period of my life when I was working a hectic job and unhappy with myself, the cracks in the wall of my  sexuality beginning to appear ever so slightly and I was an ordained minister too. My spiritual adviser had already convinced me of the need to set time aside each day for prayer.  The more I had resisted and explained my plethora of daily tasks from cooking, cleaning, child care, work in operating room and then continue the domestic routines after that each day, the more he insisted and explained that he wasn't telling me when or how. He simply noted that if I am serious about this relationship ( with God ) I had to make some adjustment to commit to the task of listening and speaking to God. I wound up getting myself up and doing 'the hours' at a seemingly ungodly 2:30 or 3 am. I would get to the operating room at 4:30 or 5 a.m. fresh with a commitment to God, my fellow workers and my brothers and sisters ( our patients ). By eight a.m. I likely would respond to my coworkers with a grunt and a scowl. My early morning peace did not always last too long. Is this a confession?

          Taking the time out at multiple points of your day, either formally as with the Liturgy of the Hours or informally as you give God some time as you drive or walk down the hallway, is an admirable, ancient and proper practice.  It might be something you want to do in Lent if not the rest of your life. God does not love us only while we participate in Mass or do some extra holy act of love and generosity at a given point of the day or week. God has our back 24/7/365. God loves us with such reckless abandon that we might find it almost incomprehensible if we think about it as we should.  My 'confession' is that in speaking to God we are not made perfect - at all. Maybe we will even be more consciously aware of our faults. We may still harbor ill thoughts or wave to the other drivers on the road with less than 5 fingers. What we will have started though in consistent daily prayers is a conversation with God. God will speak back if we then take time to listen. God always responds to us in Her unabashed and total love. No, prayer will not make us perfect but it helps keep us on a path to wholeness and holiness, ever mindful of our role in God's plan of love, thankful for all the graces we have been granted.

For unceasing prayer and our Lenten, if not life journeys we pray.